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Hi,
I'm a graduate student working on protein sources in the diet of
a number of small Australian mammals (pygmy possums, sugar gliders, brown
antechinus and the australian bush rat). My main interest is in the
importance of pollen protein, however, the bush rats ate very little
pollen and lots of fungi.
While some work on fungi-eating marsupials has been done here, I
have been unable to find very much on mammals feeding on fungi outside
Australia. If someone knows any refernces related to this topic, could
they please forward them to me? My Email address is gitv45 at uow.edu.au
For those of you who are interested, the fungi involved were
hypogeal fungi usually associated with the roots of Eucalyptus, Acacia
and Banksia. Many of the spores in the rat f¾ces were viable. I suspect
the rats are an important dispersal agent for some of the fungal species.
thanks for your time
Ian van Tets
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Wollongong
Wollongong, Australia